to-the-point: Zinc refinery in Australia goes solar

Solar plant. Photo by: First Solar (www.firstsolar.com)

August 17 (Renewables Now) - This week Sun Metals celebrated the opening of a 125-MW solar power plant that will supply power to its zinc refinery near Townsville in the Australian state of Queensland.

The solar photovoltaic (PV) farm is to cover about a third of the power needs of the zinc refinery.

Engineering and infrastructure company RCR Tomlinson Ltd (ASX:RCR) was in charge of the engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning of the solar park. It said early in August that over 1 million solar modules have been installed on fixed mounting structures across the site.

In early 2017, First Solar Inc (NASDAQ:FSLR) announced a contract to supply the thin-film PV modules for the project.